Method and apparatus for cutting waves through human hair



July 9, 1968 .1. A. ROLLO 3,391,459

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WAVES THROUGH HUMAN HAIR Filed Dec. 2, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 s u 9 l5 n 9 e 28 In H 8 o 3 3 C) 8 r 2 I? I5 ltf r r -"6 I II I E I9 E 2| IO l9 IO 2 INVENTOR.

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A ORNEY J. A. ROLLO July 9, 1968 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WAVES THROUGH HUMAN HAIR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 2, 1966 FIG.6

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INVENTOR. JOHN A. IQOL L 0 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,391,459 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WAVES THROUGH HUMAN HAIR John A. Rollo, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., assignor to Thomas J. Sobeck, Jr., Miami, Fla. Substituted for abandoned application Ser. No. 313,678, Oct. 3, 1963. This application Dec. 2, 1966, Ser. No.

* 1 Claim. (Cl. 30-195) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A comb-like slipper device having a fixed blade and a movable blade in sliding contact, the blades having cm operative teeth, and with the teeth of the movable blade being cut away to form a plurality of spaced cutting members that have cutting engagement with the teeth of the fixed blade to cut slits in strands of hair. The movable blade has rectangular openings, and the fixed blade has squared integral lugs projecting through those openings serving to limit movement of the movable blade, the lugs having cylindrical threaded extensions extending through a cover plate, and nuts and spring washers being applied to the extensions to urge the cover plate against the movable blade with the nuts being adjustable to vary the degree of frictional contact between the blades. The blades are operated by a handle and a lever. The teeth of the blade are arranged so that they cut hair only in one direction of movement of the movable blade.

This invention relates to improvements in hair cutting devices and has particular reference to such a device employed primarily to cut into the hair an artificial wave or, more specifically, to cut the hair in a manner that causes it to automatically assume a wave.

This is a substitute application for application S.N. 313,678, filed Oct. 3, 1963 and abandoned on Mar. 17, 1966.

Various devices have been heretofore employed, such as the well known thinning shears, whereby the hair is actually severed in selected areas to create the appearance of a wave, such cutting or thinning after repeated treatments resulting in so greatly damaging the hair as to make it extremely difficult to create a wave, even in the well known manner of waving.

The device of the present invention contemplates a novel form of clipper that is constructed in a manner to either partially split or intermittently split the hair longitudinally in a manner that causes the hair to naturally fall into a wave without in any way damaging the hair or without cutting or severing the hair, thus retaining the full head of hair and in no way damaging or retarding the growth thereof.

The invention further contemplates a clipper embodying a pair of cooperative reciprocatory blades having each a plurality of parallel and equidistantly spaced teeth that are arranged and operated in a novel manner and with the teeth of one blade being cut away transversely to form a plurality of spaced apart cutting edges that have cutting engagement with the teeth of the other blade whereby the spaced apart cutting edges serve to cut through a strand of hair longitudinally and in spaced apart slits for a selected length of the hair, which slits cause the hair to automatically fall into waves.

An important object of the invention resides in the number and spacing of the teeth upon the respective blades whereby cutting of the hair is done in one direction of movement of the blades only and with no danger of the hair being caught or cut in the reverse movement.

A further object of the invention resides in the method 3,391,459 Patented July 9, 1968 of splitting or cutting the hair longitudinally to cause it to fall into a wave.

Various novel features of construction and operation of the device will be more clearly apparent by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein has been illustrated a preferred form of the device and wherein like characters of reference are employed to denote like parts throughout the several figures.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a clipper constructed in accordance with the invention, parts being broken away for sake of clearness,

FIGURE 2 is a top edge view thereof,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged side elevation of one end of the clipper with parts removed and with the cutting blades and their cutting teeth in the normal or inoperative position,

FIGURE 4 is a similar view with the cutting teeth fully shifted to the cutting position,

FIGURE 5 is a still further enlarged transverse vertical section, taken substantially on line 55 of- FIG- URE 1,

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of one cutting blade,

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary horizontal section, taken on line 7-7 of FIGURE 4,

FIGURE 8 is a diagrammatic illustration of the approximate angle of combing action of the device through the hair from the scalp outwardly,

FIGURE 9 is a greatly magnified view illustrating the action of the clipper in splitting the hair longitudinally,

FIGURE 10 is a greatly magnified section through the cooperative cutting teeth, showing the hair in transverse section and being split longitudinally.

FIGURE 11 is an enlarged view of a strand of hair that has been split at spaced apart points, and

FIGURE 12 is a similar view illustrating how the split hair assumes a natural tendency to wave after being split.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the numeral 5 designates a cutter head as a whole, comprising a fiat blade 6, that is extended at one end to form a short handle connecting portion 7. The inner side of the blade 6 is grooved throughout its major length, as at 8 and projecting outwardly from the groove 8, at spaced points, are preferably square guide lugs 9. The blade 6 is provided with a plurality of equidistantly spaced cutting teeth 10, the cutting faces of which are in the same plane and flush with the inner face of the blade. The outer edges of the teeth 10 taper downwardly toward their free ends. The lugs 9 are preferably provided with cylindrical threaded extensions 11, for a purpose to be described. Connected with the portion 7 of the blade 6, as by screws 12, is a handle 13, having a socket for the reception of the portion 7 and with the screws 12 arranged to provide a limited lost motion between the handle and the portion 7. The handle 13 is further provided with a socket, indicated by dotted lines in FIGURE 1, for the seating reception of a compression spring 14.

Shiftable in a reciprocatory manner in engagement with the fiat inner face of the blade 6, is a co-operating cutter blade 15. The blade 15 has a flat inner face 16 that slidably engages the flat inner face of the blade 6, as clearly shown. The inner face of the blade 15 is grooved substantially identically to the blade 6, as at 17. The blade 15 is further provided with rectangular openings 18 that slidably engage the lugs 9 as a means to guide and limit the shifting movement of the blade 15. The blade 15 is provided with a plurality of depending and equidistantly spaced cutting teeth 19. The teeth 19 on their outer edges, taper downwardly from the blade 15, as clearly shown in FIGURE 5. The inner edges of the teeth 19 are grooved transversely, as at 20, to form a plurality of individual and horizontally arranged cutters 21, the leading edges of which are sharpened to have cutting engagement with sharpened cutting edges formed on the teeth 10. The cutters 21 may be of any desirable number and any desirable height, with the height being calculated in accordance with the eifective splitting of the hair. The teeth 19, in the preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated, are half in number to the teeth and the arrangement of the lugs 9 and opening 18 are such, that when the blade is at rest, the teeth 19 will overlie every other tooth 10, clearly shown in FIGURE 3 and with the blade shifted through its maximum movement, as in FIGURE 4, the teeth 19 have shifted to a full cutting engagement with the next adjacent tooth 10, with the teeth 19 simultaneously partially overlapping two teeth 10. The cutters 21 thus, may perform their cutting action in only one direction and any hair engaged behind the teeth 19 will be free to move outward. The teeth 19 are substantially twice the Width of the teeth 10 and With every other tooth 10 actually having cutting engagement with the cutters 21.

One end of the blade 15 is notched, as at 22, for the reception of a rounded crank end 23, of an actuating lever 24. The lever is pivotally connected at 25 to the blade 6 and underlies and is substantially parallel to the handle 13. The lever 24 is provided with a lug 26 that engages the spring 14 to prevent the displacement of the spring in use. The spring 14 normally urges the lever 24 outwardly to retract the blade 15 to a non-cutting position through the medium of the crank 23. The blade 15 is frictionally held in sliding engagement With the blade 6 by a guard plate 27, apertured at 28 for the passage of the cylindrical extensions 11, while knurled nuts 29 and spring tensioned washers engage the extension 11 to bear against the outer side of the plate 27 and are adjustable to vary the degree of frictional contact between the blades. The lost motion between the handle 13 and the extension 7 creates a slight opposed shifting of the blade 6 when the handle 13 and the lever 24 are moved in opposed relation against the tension of the spring 14 thus cushioning the action of the cutter. The device will obviously be formed of suitable hardened steel in order to maintain cutting edges having a relatively long life.

The use of the device is as follows:

Assuming the device to be assembled, as shown in FIG- URE 1, the operator first proceeds to comb out the normally straight hair and, grasping both the handle 13 and lever 24 with one hand, proceeds to comb the device through the hair, starting at the scalp and maintaining the cutter generally angled in a manner to cause the hair to be substantially parallel with the cutting edges of the teeth. Simultaneously with the device being combed through the hair, the lever is continuously actuated to impart the reciprocatory action to the blade 15 and such hair as is caught in the line of travel of the blade 15, will be cut or slit transversely and longitudinally by the cutting members 21, thus creating a plurality of spaced slits through the hair. The speed at which the device is com-bed through the hair will determine the length of the slits and, if moved slow enough, the hair may be slit continuously. The success of the method depends on splitting or cutting the hair through those areas where the wave is desirable. Obviously, all of the hair will not be split, but the operation is continued until a suitable number of the hairs have been split to cause them to curl or wave due, primarily to their effective laminated effect. The device is freely combed through the hair without danger of catching or pulling, since the reverse movement of the teeth stop short of the next adjacent teeth, permitting the hair to freely slide through the comb-like device.

It will be apparent from the foregoing, that a very effective means has been provided to cut a wave into normally straight hair without damage to the hair or without severing the hair and creating the wave while at the same time retaining the full head of hair. The method of splitting the hair is novel and the device has been designed to facilitate such splitting. In actual practice, the device and the method have been highly successful. The parts are few and simple, easily disassembled for cleaning or sharpening, is cheap to manufacture, strong, durable and extremely easy to operate.

It is to be understood, that while a preferred embodiment of the device has been illustrated and described, changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be made as fall within the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claim.

Having described my invention, what I claim is new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A comb-like clipper device of the character described comprising first and second clipper blades having cooperative flat and frictionally engaged sides, squared lugs formed integrally on said first blade, rectangular openings through said second blade receiving and engaging said lugs so that said second blade is longitudinally movable relative to said first blade within limits determined by the ends of said rectangular openings, cylindrical threaded extensions integral with and projecting from said lugs, a cover plate on the opposite side of said second blade from said first blade having holes through the same receiving said extensions, nuts on said extensions, spring washers between said nuts and said cover plate urging said cover plate against said second blade with said nuts being adjustable to vary the degree of frictional contact between said blades, a handle afiixed to One end of said first blade, a lever pivotally connected to said first blade and having a crank that engages said second blade, a coil spring between said handle and said lever spring loading said lever, said lever being movable toward and away from said handle to longitudinally shift said second blade, the first blade provided With a plurality of straight cutting teeth that are equidistantly spaced, the second blade provided with a plurality of straight teeth that override the teeth of the first blade, the teeth of the second blade being cut away transversely to form a plurality of substantially equidistantly spaced horizontally arranged cutting members that have cutting engagement with the teeth of the first blade, the teeth of the second blade being wider than the space between pairs of teeth of the first blade, the teeth of the second blade when in a non-cutting position being centered and in overlying relation to every other tooth of the first blade to form a full clearance for the shifting of the device through the hair, the teeth of the second blade when in a position of full cutting action overlapping pairs of cutting teeth of the first blade, the second named blade being shiftable to a degree whereby its cutting members will cut1 the hair in one direction of movement of the blades on y.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1909 Dolan 30 213 5/1935 Matthes 30-195 ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner. I. C. PETERS, Assistant Examiner. 

